In the moment Qi Xia was distracted, the old man in the distance had already lifted his foot and viciously kicked Qin Dingdong in the lower abdomen.

After thinking for a moment, Qi Xia walked straight up to them. “Hey…”

The old man turned his head around, glaring at Qi Xia with a face full of fury.

Only then did Qi Xia recognize that the old man before him was the first “victim.” He looked extremely angry.

The evil consequences Qin Dingdong had sown had now come back to haunt her.

Just earlier, Qin Dingdong had placated him, saying “wait another hour, and once we get two fans we’ll leave,” but it now appeared that each half-hour “fan replenishment” required spending “Dao” to purchase them.

At this moment, the old man had neither fans nor “Dao”—he was one hundred percent going to die here.

And so he had completely broken down.

Qi Xia stared at the old man, contemplating whether he should calm him down or immediately abandon Qin Dingdong.

“What do you want?!” the old man asked in an unfriendly tone. “I’m going to beat this shameless woman to death today—no one can stop me!”

The old man’s voice was extremely loud, drawing a crowd of onlookers. The temper of honest people was like a volcano—once accumulated to a certain degree, it would trigger destructive consequences. This half hour had been enough time for him to accumulate his anger.

“This is a bit troublesome…”

Qi Xia sensed danger.

He felt that this old man was about to break through a completely invisible “wall,” and once this wall collapsed, the “beastly nature” of everyone present would burst forth.

“Uncle…” Qi Xia swallowed and said, “Listen to me… I can give you one fan, but if you kill someone here…”

“Get lost!!!” The old man roared as if he’d lost his mind. “What does this have to do with you?! I’m not living today! I’m going to kill her!!”

More and more participants gathered to watch.

They all noticed the fans in Qin Dingdong and the Sichuan man’s pockets.

Although the two trying to escape weren’t exactly “wealthy people,” they were definitely “middle class.”

For the many participants, these two dying here would naturally be the best outcome—their fans would become ownerless property, and many people could get a share of the spoils.

It was just that no one was willing to let their own hands be the first stained with blood.

Qi Xia frowned, rapidly thinking of countermeasures.

The uncle before him would definitely fight to mutual destruction—he had no hope left. Although this matter was Qin Dingdong’s fault from the start, for his own interests, Qi Xia needed to prevent deaths from occurring as much as possible.

But even more desperate events came one after another for Qi Xia.

The “wealthy person” who had earlier bought all the “Sorrows” and another “wealthy person” had already completed their pairing and wanted to escape from the stairway, but were now also blocked by a group of onlookers.

At this moment, except for the two “wealthy people” who had escaped at the very beginning, all the “wealthy people” were blocked.

In this game, the aftereffects caused by the “wealth gap” had already begun to manifest.

Before Qi Xia could react, a knife-wielding man stood directly on the escape stairway.

It seemed the earlier pair of “wealthy people” had indeed given him the knife when they escaped. The situation had now taken a sharp turn for the worse—the “Fraud Game” might be entering its second phase.

That would be the “Violence Phase.”

Now it wasn’t about who had better strategies, but about who had harder fists and who held the knife.

“Hey!” The knife-wielding man stopped the old man who was beating Qin Dingdong. “What’s the use of just hitting her?! Take her fans!”

“Fans… fans…?” The old man looked at the fans in Qin Dingdong’s pocket and couldn’t help but swallow. “That’s right! My fans were swindled…”

With that said, he immediately bent down to snatch Qin Dingdong’s fans.

“You shameless woman… give me the fans!!”

Qin Dingdong clutched her pocket tightly: “No! I won’t give them!!”

“If you don’t give them to me, I’ll kill you!!”

At this point, Qi Xia couldn’t just stand by and watch—he rushed forward and pulled the old man away.

“Hey?!”

“Everyone!” Qi Xia called out loudly. “Think carefully… once deaths occur here, things will spiral out of control from then on. Every single person could die in the games that follow… are you all really prepared?”

The crowd looked at Qi Xia expressionlessly, all wearing looks of detached indifference as if it had nothing to do with them.

Of course—as things stood now, the ones about to die were these few “wealthy people” before them, not themselves.

At this moment, Qi Xia had only one thought… who could stand on his side? A single tree doesn’t make a forest—even having just one person would help.

A leather-jacket-wearing man in the group seemed to want to step forward and say something but was held back by another leather-jacket-wearing man.

One “wealthy person,” seeing the crowd at an impasse, clutched his briefcase and took advantage of the chaos to charge directly toward the exit.

Qi Xia first looked at that “wealthy person” with panic, then revealed a fortunate expression.

The escaping “wealthy person” wasn’t the man who bought all the “Sorrows,” but rather the person who had teamed up with him.

“Damn it!”

The knife-wielding man, under everyone’s watchful eyes, caught up to him in just a few steps, then thrust the knife into his ribs.

The entire incident happened in just a few seconds—no one had time to react.

The knife-wielding man also seemed to freeze for a moment but quickly came to his senses, pretending to be composed as he asked: “Who told you to run?!”

He viciously pulled out the blood-red knife, and the man collapsed immediately.

The “wealthy person” lay on the ground gasping and trembling, his face rapidly taking on a deathly pallor.

Blood gushed out from beneath him in torrents—the first life was about to vanish.

Regardless of whether this knife-wielding man had killed before, he had now broken his killing taboo. From now on, he wouldn’t hesitate when striking again.

At this moment, the crowd finally became restless. A life had just dissipated like this, and sighs of lament inevitably spread through the crowd.

But being in the “Land of the End,” everyone’s acceptance of death was clearly much higher. Many among them began calculating whether they should snatch the fans.

Qi Xia looked at the “wealthy person” lying on the ground at death’s door and slowly frowned.

Although “someone dying” was indeed not good, it seemed there was still an important matter he had overlooked…

What was it?

Qi Xia turned his head to look at the Earth-Sheep in the distance—he had no reaction whatsoever.

So killing was indeed tacitly permitted?

The “wealthy person” who had bought all the “Sorrows” saw this scene and was looking toward Qi Xia in terror.

After thinking for a moment, Qi Xia said with his lips: “Run.”

That “wealthy person” came to his senses and, taking advantage of the crowd’s confusion, turned and fled up the stairs like the wind, then opened the door and escaped.

The knife-wielding man never expected that right after he had “established his authority,” someone would immediately “rebel.”

That person’s movements were extremely swift. The knife-wielding man, seeing this, was momentarily beside himself with rage. He also wanted to rush out the door immediately but gradually stopped five or six meters from the doorway.

He hadn’t successfully “paired” yet—if he escaped now, he would certainly violate the rules.

Before the crowd could settle down, the old man pushed Qi Xia aside and came to Qin Dingdong’s side again.

“I must take your fans today!”

He reached out and tightly grasped the fans in Qin Dingdong’s pocket, pulling hard and tearing one to shreds. The old man didn’t seem to care at all and continued tearing at the other fans.

Qi Xia reached out to speak, but the knife-wielding man turned back and spoke first: “Hey!! Old man! Who told you to tear up the fans!”

“I don’t care!!” The old man shouted with a ferocious expression. “Even if I tear up her fans, I won’t let her have it easy!!”

Seeing this scene, Qi Xia knew he could no longer stop it. He could only take the fans and escape to a safe corner as soon as possible. If he continued to stay in the eye of this storm, he would sooner or later become the next target.

Qin Dingdong’s probability of death at this moment was extremely high, and the “wealthy person” teamed up with her would most likely die here as well.

But before he could walk a few steps, the knife-wielding man came to Qin Dingdong’s side and blocked the old man with one hand.

“I told you not to destroy the fans! Don’t you understand?!” the knife-wielding man roared angrily.

After hearing this, the old man also became furious: “This woman swindled me! I must make sure she can’t get out!”

“Then just kill her!” the man shouted as if he’d lost his reason.

“Right… then give me the knife!” The man, provoked by the knife-wielder, actually grew angry as well. “Give me the knife and I’ll kill her!”

With those words, he reached out to snatch the man’s knife. But how could the man be willing to let go?

The two actually started grappling with each other.

“What are you doing with my knife?!”

“Give it to me! I want to kill someone!!”